I've heard a lot about software agents over the last decade or so (they were hot when I was studying AI in grad school), but I have never seen a particularly co

I've heard a lot about software agents over the last decade or so (they were hot when I was studying AI in grad school), but I have never seen a particularly compelling application. I'm curious to see how well these shopping agents (probably the preeminent practical example of the technology) actually function in the wild, and how they're adopted. If the use of shopping agents actually became a market force, I suspect many online retailers would need to change various business practices to adapt, much like websites have adapted by optimizing for search engines.